Max Browne’s commitment to USC on Wednesday might be the kick start to a top-10 class for the Trojans—and that’s with 10 fewer scholarships to work with than most programs. Quality could trump quantity in this situation.

Quality is what a program has to rely on when the NCAA hands down scholarship reductions for past indiscretions. There’s little room for errors and less for “project players.” USC has to be picky.

Getting the best quarterback in the nation to spearhead the effort is a great start. Browne told Sporting News in March that he would like to come on board with a program as quickly as possible so he could begin recruiting future teammates. This is a common theme for quarterbacks in recruiting—coaching staffs want them to be leaders from Day 1 and being recruiters is one of the first steps. This is why quarterbacks rarely wait until fall for official visits. Instead, they make their college choice early like Browne just did—10 months from national signing day.

The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Browne brings the kind of leadership USC—or any team—would love to have. He’s already dropping names of players he’d like to join him at USC—elite talent like DB Su’a Cravens and RB Ty Isaac. Browne’s a winner (23 wins in two years at Skyline High School in Washington and one state title), he’s productive (8,000-plus passing yards, 95 TDs) and he’s intelligent. He’s exactly what the Trojans will need as they begin digging out from underneath the 30 scholarship losses over three years.

Expect Browne to compete for the staring job as a true freshman in 2013. He’ll compete with Max Wittek and Cody Kessler, who are already on campus. The Trojans did not sign a quarterback in the 2012 class.

In February, USC was only able to sign 15 players—following a 2011 class where they squeezed in 30 signees at the last second, just ahead of the final rulings on their status with sanctions. This year, the number again will be around 15 and there are three midyear scholarships available that wouldn’t count toward the 2013 number.

Hoarding national talent won’t be as easy as it was in the past for USC. In truth, hogging Pac-12-area talent won’t even be a cinch. Oregon has become sexy, UCLA has become a recruiting force again under Jim Mora, Stanford is a new threat, Cal is legitimate and Washington is slowly rising to the top. Five years ago, none of these programs could boast recruiting finishes as strong as USC’s. Now they are formidable competition.

Still, USC is USC—and coach Lane Kiffin can dangle the possibility of a true freshman playing significant time for a significant program, since the roster is going to lack depth over the next few years. That pitch line will work and luring the top quarterback in the nation will give recruits the impression that momentum is swinging USC’s way.

A side effect to Browne’s decision will be the annual domino effect of quarterbacks committing in the spring and early summer. Now, highly recruited and undecided pro-style QBs like Hayden Rettig, Troy Williams, Cooper Bateman and Kevin Olsen could be off the boards before June.